Prof William Lore speaks during the 50th Kenya Medical Association Scientific Conference in May 2023, in Mombasa. The meeting also celebrated the 100th anniversary of the East African Medical Journal (EAMJ). Next to him is KMA President Dr Simon Kigondu.The wise
Africans who knew had a saying, “ The written word does not rot.”
Prof William Lore died on December 23, 2025. He was a professor
of medicine and a long-serving editor-in-chief of the East African Medical
Journal. He also served as the chair of the Kenya Medical Association.
Medicine is
divided into four major disciplines: paediatrics – diseases of children; obstetrics/gynaecology – diseases and conditions of women; surgery – where
there is a need to cut someone up; and internal medicine – which covers diseases
and conditions of everyone.
Medicine is practised from two perspectives,
clinical and public health. Clinical medicine is about the individual and the
disease that affects them as a person. Public health is about the community,
how it contributes to and is affected by individual illness.
Prof Lore was an
internal medicine specialist in cardiology, diseases of the heart. He taught
first at the University of Nairobi from 1977 to 1989. He was part of the professors
who established the medical school at
Moi University from 1989 onwards.
Many of the currently practising
cardiologists and hundreds of doctors passed through his hands. Many of his
students will remember his gentle nature when teaching, especially bedside ward
teaching with patients. Learning in the wards, with the patient present and
other students, was often an intimidating experience.
Prof Lore was a gentle
teacher, guiding students to think and logically learn their medicine without
distressing the patient. He taught many how to use the stethoscope, that proud
symbol of a doctor, properly.
But perhaps his
greatest contribution to the foundations of medical practice in independent
Kenya was not in the wards but as Editor-in-Chief of the East African Medical
Journal.
The practice of medicine is dynamic, and doctors need to keep up with the latest knowledge. That knowledge has to be local; the mosquito in Italy does
not do the same thing as in Kenya. Cajoling and collating Practioners to write
is a tough business.
Today, the
advent of the pin has made even the signature, a bit of writing that does not
need to be legible, irrelevant. But even in the past, Africans were not known
for writing a lot. As editor in chief, Prof Lore had to find, encourage and
motivate Practioners to become researchers, to write.
Today, many imagine
motivation means money despite the scientific evidence to the contrary. For the
editor of the EAMJ, getting people to write was about true motivation, getting
people to develop a passion. He did it for many years, almost single-handedly
carrying the journal.
I would occasionally visit his office. He was always
impeccably dressed. A suit, trousers held by suspenders. He favoured a white
collar, broad, vertical striped shirts with a bow tie. He would be at his desk, swamped with
manuscripts and paper in neat bundles all over the place. Pen in hand, meticulously editing a particular manuscript, preparing it for print. It was
all manual until personal computers became common.
Dr Lore was also
the chair of the Kenya Medical Association. What KMA is today, with thousands of
medical doctors as members, has grown from an early foundation when just a few hundred doctors were practising in Kenya. The medical fraternity in Kenya
has lost a number of its foundational members who contributed greatly to establishing
medical teaching and practice.